Could mid-rise developments be key to meeting housing targets?
The Government has set the Mayor a target of 88,000 homes per year over the next decade. In the financial year 2023-2024, 32,160 new homes were built,1 and in the past 20 years annual completions have never exceeded 52,200.
London is less densely populated than many other comparable global cities, with figures from 2021 showing 88.3 per cent of London’s homes were in low-rise buildings, compared to only 41 per cent of Paris’s homes, 48 per cent of New York’s, and 62 per cent of Tokyo’s.2
The current London Plan does not include a policy on mid-rise developments but the ‘Towards a New London Plan’ consultation launched in May referenced London’s lack of mid-rise development compared to other European cities. A new London Plan is due in 2027, and in his foreword, the Mayor stated: “given the scale of the challenge we now face and our bold plans for growth, the next London Plan will need to go further.”
The London Assembly Planning and Regeneration Committee will meet tomorrow to examine the case for mid-rise developments in reaching the Mayor’s housing targets, including the barriers and opportunities.
The guests are:
Panel one
- Nicholas Boys Smith MBE, Founder and Director, Create Streets
- Russell Curtis, Founding Director, RCKa and Chair, Barnet Quality Review Panel
- Maurice Lange, Analyst, Centre for Cities
Panel Two
- Michael Ball, Coordinator and Media Worker, Just Space
- Hana Kapetanovic, Researcher, Demos
- Nicola Livingstone, Professor in Real Estate, University of Glasgow
- Shreya Nanda, Advisor, London YIMBY
The meeting will take place on Wednesday 22 October at 10am in the Chamber at City Hall, Kamal Chunchie Way, E16 1ZE.
Media and members of the public are invited to attend.
The meeting can also be viewed LIVE or later via webcast or YouTube.
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Notes to editors
- London Assembly, Tackling London’s Housing Crisis: Report shows how to unlock development in London, 21 March 2025
- London’s figure (2021) includes houses, bungalows, and 2–5-storey flats (≤ 5 storeys), whereas the comparative figures for Paris (1999), New York (2013), and Tokyo (2013) reflect dwellings in buildings of ≤ 4 storeys only; direct comparability is approximate due to slightly different height bands and data years. Sources: London Assembly, Tackling London’s Housing Crisis: Report shows how to unlock development in London, 21 March 2025 p9 and GLA, Housing and Land Housing Research Note 3 Housing in four world cities: London, New York, Paris and Tokyo (2019) p12 (figures extrapolated)
- James Small-Edwards AM, Chair of the Planning and Regeneration Committee, is available for interview.
- Find out more about the London Assembly Planning and Regeneration Committee.
- Read the agenda in full.
- As well as investigating issues that matter to Londoners, the London Assembly acts as a check and a balance on the Mayor.
For media enquiries, please contact Tony Smyth on 07763 251 727 or [email protected]. For out of hours media enquiries please call 020 7983 4000 and ask for the Assembly duty press officer.